The new study, by the same Harvard research team, linked excessive salt consumption to nearly 2.3 million cardiovascular deaths worldwide in 2010. One in 10 Americans dies from eating too much salt, the researchers found.

“The burden of sodium is much higher than the burden of sugar-sweetened beverages,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health and author of both the salt and sugary drink studies. “That’s because sugar-sweetened beverages are just one type of food that people can avoid, whereas sodium is in everything.”

Mozaffarian and colleagues used data from 247 surveys on sodium intake and 107 clinical trials that measured how salt affects blood pressure, and how blood pressure contributes to cardiovascular disease like heart attacks and stroke.

“From that we could determine the health effects of sodium,” he said, adding that one out of three deaths due to excessive sodium occurred before age 70. “It’s really affecting younger adults, not just the elderly.”

The study, presented today at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans, adds to mounting evidence that packaged and processed foods containing high levels of salt for flavor and shelf life can take a heavy toll on cardiovascular health.

“It’s really amazing how pervasive it is,” Mozaffarian said of salt. “For the average person, it’s very hard to avoid salt – you have to be incredibly motivated, incredibly educated, have access to a range of foods and do all the cooking yourself.”

But not everything is easy to whip up at home, Mozaffarian added. Bread and cheese are the top two sources of sodium in the U.S.

I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think; I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy who likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I WANT high cholesterol. I wanna eat bacon and butter and BUCKETS of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green Jell-o all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal?

I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiener".

7
posted on 03/22/2013 8:42:49 PM PDT
by BenLurkin
(This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)

Studies point to stunning statistics that 100% of all deaths are caused by mortality.

An incredible and sobering point.

In other news, the Obama Administration has awarded $250 billion to several who will study the problem. It is feared there may be an impact to the administration of ObamaCare but, likely it will have an accretive effect that could sharply cuts costs during end of life management for those over 65.

10
posted on 03/22/2013 8:45:25 PM PDT
by Vendome
(Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)

With 900 milligrams of sodium per teaspoon of soy sauce, the government is considering how certain changes in the delivery of wasabi can impact health.

NHS and Kathleen Sebelius are outlining rules based on the Pritikin Diet, which finds that you can replace sodium laced soy sauce with rice vinegar reducing salt intact nearly 100% but, still giving that hot but quickly dissapating taste wasabi is so well known for and enjoyed.

In other news, a certain Freeper did stop in at Whole Foods and did find an excellent soy sauce replacement that has only 100 milligrams of sodium and tastes just like soy sauce.

In fact, I replaced the soy sauce with this and no one could tell the difference.

It’s called Bragg, Liquid Aminos, Natural Soy Sauce Alternative. It’s only $4 bucks for 16 ounces and there is no reason not to use it.

Great on rice and with sushi. You won’t be able to taste the difference but your body will be able to tell.

The burden of sodium is much higher than the burden of sugar-sweetened beverages, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health

It has been said that the primary career goal of an epidemiologist should be to retire with his reputation at least partially intact. This a-h is not going to make it, and his Harvard cred won't save him. The role of sodium in health problems is highly ambiguous at best.

It's been a while since I've dug into the studies, but when last I did the studies available at the time showed that if you had certain defects you were indeed more likely to die of certain specific things related to blood pressure with a high salt diet. ... the other half of that was that you were more likely to die of a range of different things with a low salt diet. So yes, if you have hypertension having a high salt diet on top of that makes things much much worse. But if you don't have hypertension, then the salt was harmless or beneficial. I don't know if the studies still support that, but the odd careful wording makes me suspect that it does.

28
posted on 03/22/2013 8:58:48 PM PDT
by lepton
("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)

Indeed it is. I recall complaints from lab mavens in solid state physics that we leave it all over everything we touch. Recall the Bell System Science Series film, HEMO THE MAGNIFICENT, which made a dramatic scene out of the announcement that sea water is the closest thing to human blood. The word "salary" comes from the Latin word for salt.

My opinion, which is my own, is that a low-salt diet is in fact a deprivation diet. The human body regulates its salt content with robust mechanisms, and our taste for this mineral serves the purpose of insuring a minimum level.

I suppose it may be true that lowering the level below what the body provides for, particularly as we age, may have the salutary effect which is claimed, but this requires that we force the level below what the wisdom of our body, such as it may be, decrees.

It is all about the A-salt shakers (magazines) that allow the dispensing of too many crystals in one shake. And it is also all about the wrong kind of salt (ammo) - if it is not RealSalt, totally unprocessed, it is too deadly for anyone except the Surgeon General/FDA/AMA to handle...they are currently buying 1.6 billion grains to protect us from ourselves by making this stuff scarce.

Seriously (more seriously that the seriously written comments in the preceding paragraph), salt is not a killer...if it is natural, unprocessed. The ‘table salt’ we find in the grocery store is processed, and is not healthy, though it does not do what this article is suggesting. Low sodium...is it healthy? Depends...

Some low sodium products are very high in potassium, a very good thing. We are all generally shy on our potassium intake. Natural salt (unprocessed) is not unhealthy. RealSalt, Himalayan Salt are healthy. Sea salt? better than processed salt, but not as good as the RealSalt or Himalayan Salt lsid down in ancient sea beds eons ago before there were bad contaminants (Mercury etc) in the seas.

I am past mid 70...I am healthy...recent blood work shows everything in ‘spec’...even the non issue ‘cholesterol’. I am on no prescription meds. Only health problem is cateracts, and those will soon be corrected...asked Doc about incidence...he said everybody gets cateracts...and he told me I will see better than I have ever seen (I’ve worn glasses since I was 5). The point of this is that I like salt...I use a lot of salt...and I also like fat, especially butter - my butter consumption is way beyond the average in this country, and I eat butter, not anykind of butter substitute (all margarines, etc are bad for us). I also eat bacon, several times a week, and if I wind up at a certain breakfast buffet that has unlimited bacon, I PIG out. I do not worry about any kind of animal fat. I eat eggs, lots of ‘em. Eggs are healthy. Egg white substitutes are not (the yoke is better for you than the white).

Etc etc etc...

39
posted on 03/22/2013 9:20:31 PM PDT
by GGpaX4DumpedTea
(I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders.)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.